Hamill won't give up on swimming

KAWANA Waters' Samantha Hamill admits to entertaining thoughts of quitting swimming after her disappointing Olympics campaign, but has decided she does not want to go out that way.

The 21-year-old, who failed to make the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly after battling through the pain of a chronic shoulder injury, said she was determined to end her career on a high note.

"I did think about maybe giving up on this, but I don't want to give up after a less-than-average swim," she said.

"If I'm going to get out, I probably want to be happy with the end result.

"I'm still young. I'm one of the younger ones on the (Australian) team, so I think I'll give it another few years and see where I'm at after that."

Hamill was clearly dissatisfied with her performance at the Games, where her heat time of 2:11.07 was well outside her best.

"To go over there and swim three-and-a-half seconds over my PB is a very average swim," she said.

"I'm not really sure why and I guess there are a lot of people (in the Australian swim team) in the same position.

"They're not really sure why things happened the way they did, but that's life and you've got to get over it."

Hamill had struggled with a shoulder injury for the better part of the past two years and was hampered by it before and during the Games.

"I'm not saying that my shoulder injury was the reason why I swum badly, but it was hard in the lead-up," she said.

"Every day was different. I had some good days and bad days, but it was restricting my movement in my shoulder and I guess that's the major thing you need - you need good movement and flexibility in your shoulder, especially for butterfly.

"But it's definitely not the reason why I swam crap. I can't really put it down to anything."

Hamill will undergo a shoulder operation today in Melbourne and is hopeful she can return to the pool a stronger swimmer.

"To be honest, there was nothing that I really thought could be done on it (before the Games)," she said.

"I saw the specialist last year and it was pretty much just physio, but I guess now the Olympics are over and there's nothing really coming up for me ... it's a good time to get that done now.

"I've got to take it really slowly after this.

"I'm not sure how long it will take me to get back into training, but at this point it doesn't really matter as long as my shoulder is fixed and I'm able to train again."

Hamill will undergo a complex arthroscopy.

"I've got a cyst at the back of my shoulder from overuse, so they've got to remove that as well as a bit of the bone, as well as doing a normal arthroscopy tidying up tendons and things like that," she said.

Hamill hails from Melbourne and is visiting family there. She will return to the Sunshine Coast on Friday.